The Best of Irakere
Artist: Irakere
Community Score: 10.00

For Latin jazz fans, this is a succinct and nearly complete roundup of Irakere's two North American albums, a brief peek through Cuba's door before politics slammed it shut again for another generation. Irakere is represented by four tracks, including the lengthy, uncut "Black Mass," and Irakere II by six tracks. The live Irakere was an exciting... Read More

Bele Bele en La Habana
Artist: Chucho Valdés

Issued just after his landmark two-week June 1998 gig at the Village Vanguard and subsequent U.S./Canada tour, Chucho Valdés' first album for Blue Note bears out a lot of the hype surrounding this hugely gifted Cuban pianist. Unlike many of today's younger Cuban keyboard hotshots, Valdés not only has great technical chops and musical erudition,... Read More

Groovin' High
Artist: Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers

If anyone has successfully bridged the gap between Latin jazz and soul-jazz, it's Pucho, whose very accessible blend of hard bop, R&B and Afro-Cuban music took its share of knocks from jazz critics but was consistently swinging and could always liven up a party. The New York percussionist was 59 when Groovin' High came out on the small... Read More

Sobre el Fuego
Artist: India
Community Score: 10.00

India's Sobre El Fuego is a dynamic set of traditional New York salsa. The fact that India doesn't shake things up much at all is actually a benefit -- her rich voice and percolating, infectious music prove that "traditional" doesn't mean "conventional." Sobre El Fuego is about as entertaining as New York salsa can get. ~ Terry Jenkins, All... Read More

Coleccion Mi Historia
Artist: Elis Regina
Buena Vista Social Club
Artist: Buena Vista Social Club
Community Score: 7.37

This album is named after a members-only club that was opened in Havana in pre-Castro times, a period of unbelievable musical activity in Cuba. While bandleader Desi Arnaz became a huge hit in the States, several equally talented musicians never saw success outside their native country, and have had nothing but their music to sustain them during... Read More

A Toda Cuba Le Gusta
Artist: Afro-Cuban All Stars
Community Score: 6.17

A lively, spontaneous record that manages to sound both relaxed and forceful at the same time, A Toda Cuba Le Gusta shows off the talents of many of Cuba's elder statesmen of Afro-Cuban jazz. Over gently pulsating conga grooves and low-register ostinatos, such luminaries as pianist Ruben Gonzalez and singer Manuel "Puntillita" Licea float... Read More

Oye Como Va: The Dance Collection
Artist: Tito Puente

Given Tito Puente's staggeringly prolific output on recordings, obviously no single disc can sum it up, so Concord Picante sensibly calls this compendium a "dance" collection. With the aim to keep the mambos, guajiras and cha-chas moving and grooving foremost in mind, there is still a great deal of variety in this CD -- powerhouse big-band... Read More

My Summertime
Artist: Ray Barretto

Ray Barretto (a master of the congas) has effectively fused together bop-oriented jazz with Latin rhythms to form a particularly viable version of Afro-Cuban jazz; he hates the term "Latin jazz." Rather than sounding like two forms of music, Barretto's group New World Spirit shows that Latin rhythms can uplift all types of jazz songs, even... Read More

El Rumbero del Piano
Artist: Eddie Palmieri

Grand master Palmieri and his ensemble, usually a tentet or slightly larger, explore punchy horn charts, the "son" song form, hot percussion grooves, a Mexican folk and straight jazz tune, and the infectiously distinctive Latin jazz (no one plays montuno better) or "Afro-World" (Palmieri's definition) music that few have mastered. Certainly no... Read More